


Knowing Your Limits

by Loremaiden



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV)
Genre: Community: watsons_woes, Gen, Great Hiatus, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 14:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6119653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loremaiden/pseuds/Loremaiden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Clay is an intelligent man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Knowing Your Limits

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the February 2016 prompt (Unexpected Kindness) on Watson's Woes.

I'm an intelligent man. I understand much. But an intelligent man also knows his limits, and I admit I don't understand this.

Holmes is alive. Deep in hiding, but alive. I know it. Moran knows it. And we both know the best way to force the fox out of his hole.

He's ripe for the taking, worn and complacent and alone in his Kensington practice, and both he and Scotland Yard are as helpless as newborn babes without Holmes to push their prams in the right direction. I've discussed with Moran how we could easily grab him with a minimum of fuss.

But Moran has unexpectedly refused to do it. And I cannot comprehend _why_.

Is it because they are both soldiers? ...No. No, it goes deeper than that. They are both soldiers who have lost their commanding officers. The old man must hold some misguided sense of fellow-feeling for him. So it's Colonel's orders—the doctor is officially off-limits.

It's a kindness, which is of course merely a synonym for weakness. A weakness Moran can ill afford.

But I'll keep such thoughts to myself. After all, I'm an intelligent man.


End file.
